Tmi Fox
My genealogy is full of some disparate ages when it comes to marriage. One of my branches (long, long, long ago) even has a step-father who impregnated his step-daughter due to the extreme lack of men in that area at the time (they had to repopulate the island). I myself dated a 21 year old when I was 14 which never hurt me in any way and we were still friends when he died of cancer decades later. The point is we need to take into consideration "mental age" and the era we are talking about and not make arbitrary judgements, especially when you consider what the average life span was even just 100 years ago (there was only so much time to accomplish everything). Most western teenagers are A LOT older mentally than say a poor uneducated 13 year old from the middle east forced to marry a 50 year old she's never even met because of some warped sense of family honor and religion. That truly is gross.

Susan Wiar Berger
@Cathy Mize Manning: 14 and 16 is WAY different...Heck, my first husband and I met when I was 16 and he was 20...but Jerry Lee Lewis was a pedophile! PLUS this was his cousin! EW!!! :p

Ted Whitten
It's ridiculous to call him a paedophile. It's been fairly common and legal to marry at very young ages at numerous times and places throughout recent history. [external link] Today, in the US, many see this as shocking. But he was a product of the time and place he was raised.

Ted Whitten
Anyone ever seen My Fair Lady? .. one of the most famous, classic musicals of all time .. and noticed the MASSIVE age different between the two lead characters? Eliza was probably supposed to be about 17, and Professor Higgins, around 65. But not at all unusual.

Just A Small Town Girl
She was a 3rd or 4th cousin. My granny was 14 when she married and a widow with 2 children by age 18.....of course, that was back in the 1920s and early 1930s. Times were much different then, especially in extremely rural locations.

Charlotte Hall
first cousin once removed...second cousin, not the same. She was the child of Jerry's first cousin. They'd be second cousins only if one of each of their parents were first cousins. There has to be a way to describe the relationship between individuals and their cousins' children. If first cousins each have children, then those children are second cousins to each other, right down through the generations. (Needed to have this explained to me!)

Ted Whitten
Either way, love is love. It's not like they were brother and sister. Heck, I've heard of cases where brother and sister married accidentally, not realizing they were even related at all. That's icky, but cousins .. even first cousins ... who are we to judge whether two people who love each other should be together.

Pam Denham
As for being cousins, it depends most states won't allow 1st or 2nd cousins to marry however 3rd cousins may marry. My uncle & his wife are also cousins. His grandpa & her grandma were brother & sister. However, my uncle was adopted so they aren't blood related. It was funny to see that her surname didn't change, because it's the same.

Sharon Spain Ingle
Look at your genealogy records. It used to be common for girls to marry at about that age. I'm not saying it's good, but it used to be an accepted thing. My husband's mother married when she was 14 & was very happy.

Brenda Ash
I also worked on my family tree too and found first cousin marrying on both sides of my family, Think about it, over hundred years or more people were limited to travel and living in small towns not like today we meet people around the world. So if your Dating a relative now is pretty sicken..

Joan Langston Parrett
Also the chance of so many mental and physical problems from too close a family member...My x had an aunt who married her first cousin and they had to sign something saying they would not re produce due to the possibility of too close a genetically match..or maybe genetically unmatch...many problems from too close DNA...

Susanne Zimmer Basque
it is true that if you share the same dna ( which would happen of you marry a first cousin) and there are genes that carry certain illnesses and abnormalities, they will be more likely to surface..that's why we don't do that now a days bc we figured it out!

Winter Flodman Cash
My mother was 18 years old and my father was 26 years old when they met and married a year later. My mother had been on her own since she was 16 years old, my dad since he was 15 years old. Life was different back then. :-S

Kenny Fowler
From what I understand Elvis pretty much just took her to raise until Priscilla became of age and then they got married. I don't think there was any sexual activity between them before that.

Attilio Paolo Pezzotta
nothing against jerry lee lewis as being a pioneer in music..but tell me how on earth does he manage to marry his 13 year ols cousin..amazing..i wonder if anyone could do that shit today and get away with it..oh well still a rock legend who cares music man

Carolyn Sullivan Fillingham
I remember when he came to Mobile and stayed at the St Francis Motel Court....his new wife was with him and they were at the pool (my Mother worked there so we got to go and swim)

Mary Jervis
The government didn't like the idea that "white" people started listening to the sounds of "colored" people, as they were called back then. So they threw some people in jail and drafted others and had white-bread boys singing songs that should have been done by the original groups. This was especially hated in the south.

Carolyn Baldwin Reid
Mary. There goes someone trying to turn anything said into racism and no wonder it cannot die down !! Nothing racist about this picture. Not did it say anything about the govt. liking or not liking certain sounds !!!

Margarett Saunders
I Noticed The Gas Station In The Back Ground ..... An Esso Station Haven't Seen That In A Many A Year .... How Many Remember The Esso Gas Station .... :)! .. Saw Jerry Lee At The Hollywood. Casino In Bay St. Louis .... Before The Storm Still Sounded Great...

Katherine Gullett
This was in the fifties and while marriages like this were not uncommon in some southern states it was completely frowned upon and socially repugnant to most people. His popularity waned dramatically.

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